Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/766

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736 TICHBORNE TRIAL tor assumed identity with a known person, in English legal records. Roger Charles Tich- borne, born Jan. 5, 1829, was, after his father, heir to the title and great estates of his uncle, Sir Edward, who added the name Doughty to Tichborne. After an education in France and at the Roman Catholic college of Stonyhurst, Roger entered the army in 1849. In 1852 he offered himself to his cousin Kate, daughter of Sir Edward ; but her parents opposed the mar- riage, upon which he resigned his commission and went to sea. He arrived at Valparaiso June 19, 1853, and on April 20, 1854, sailed from Rio de Janeiro for New York in the ship Bella, which was lost at sea. Sir Edward died March 5, 1853, and was succeeded by his broth- er James, Roger's father, who died June 11, 1862. In the presumed loss at sea of Roger, he was succeeded by his second son Alfred, who died Feb. 22, 1866, and was succeeded by a posthumous son, born May 28, 1806. In 1865 Lady Tichborne, widow of Sir James, began to advertise in English and Australian newspapers for her son Roger, whom she believed to be alive. In 1866 a butcher in Wagga Wagga, Australia, supposed to be Ar- thur Orton, but then calling himself Thomas Castro, asserted that he was Roger Charles Tichborne, and had been saved from the wreck of the Bella. After some correspondence with Lady Tichborne, he sailed for London, arrived there Dec. 25, and in January, 1867, went to Paris, where Lady Tichborne accepted him as her son and supplied him with money. Nearly every other member of the family repudiated him as an impostor ; but he found many adhe- rents who assumed to recognize him as the long lost Roger, and went about England collecting witnesses and gathering information concern- ing the family, the estates, and incidents in Roger's life. In March, 1867, he filed a bill in chancery to restrain the trustees of the estates from setting up certain outstanding terms as an answer to any action he might bring to recover the property. The commencement of the action was delayed nearly four years by the sending of commissions to South America and Australia, and by other causes. In the mean time Lady Tichborne died, March 12, 1868. The case had excited extraordinary attention. Public opinion was divided, though so many believed in the claimant that he was able to raise considerable money by the sale of bonds payable upon his coming into possession of the property. On May 11, 1871, the trial for the recovery of the Tichborne estates in Hampshire and Dorsetshire, -valued at 24,000 a year, was begun in the court of common pleas. With two adjournments, it continued 103 days, till March 6, 1872, when the jury interposed, de- claring themselves satisfied that the claimant was not Roger Charles Tichborne, and he was nonsuited. He was immediately ordered into custody to be tried for perjury, but was sub- sequently released on bail. The trial for per- jury of Thomas Castro, otherwise Arthur Or- TICINO ton (as the indictment ran), was commenced in the court of queen's bench on April 23, 1873, and continued 188 days to Feb. 28, 1874, when he was found guilty and was sentenced to 14 years' penal servitude. He was sent to Millbank, and subsequently transferred to Dartmoor prison. The principal points in the two cases which led to the claimant's convic- tion were these: After assuming to be Tich- borne, the claimant, though hard pushed for money, did not avail himself of balances and credits which Roger had with two Australian bankers. On arriving in London he immedi- ately sought for the relatives of Arthur Or- ton, and subsequently sent to one of the Or- ton sisters photographs of himself, wife, and child as those of Arthur Orton and family. He was entirely ignorant of incidents connect- ed with Roger's residence in France, and knew no French, .which Roger spoke better than he did English. The handwritings of the two were wholly unlike. Roger was well educa- ted, while the claimant was grossly illiterate. The physical differences between the two were even more marked. Roger was thin ; his hair was straight ; his ears adhered to the sides of his head. The claimant was enormously fat; he was an inch taller than Roger; his head was larger ; his hair was inclined to curl ; his ears were dependent and free, with large lobes ; and it was clearly proved that one of Roger's arms was tattooed with his initials, while no such marks could be found on the claimant. The career of the claimant was also closely traced from the time when he left England to the time when he assumed to be Roger. The expense of the trials compelled the trustees to mortgage the Tichborne estates. See " Charge of the Lord Chief Justice in the Case of The Queen v. Castro" (2 vols. 8vo, London, 1875). TICINO (Fr. and Ger. Tessin), a S. canton of Switzerland bordering on Valais, Uri, Grisons, and Italy; area, 1,095 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 119,619, nearly all Roman Catholics. The sur- face is mountainous, but the N. part is more elevated than the S., that frontier being formed by lofty summits of the Alps, including the central mass of the St. Gothard range ; and a considerable portion of it belongs to the glacier region. The face of the country has a general slope toward the south, and lofty mountain ridges traverse it in that and a S. E. direction. With the exception of a small part of the north, the drainage belongs to the basin of the Po. The principal river is the Ticino (anc. Ticinus), which, rising in Mt. St. Gothard and receiving numerous tributaries, flows through Lago Mag- giore, a small portion of which is within the boundary of the canton, to the Po near Pavia. There are several other lakes, including Lugano, Muzzano, and Origlio. In the elevated parts of the canton the chief business is cattle rearing and butter and cheese making. In the south there are on the lower slopes chestnut forests, and in the valleys vineyards, corn fields, and plantations of figs, almonds, oranges, citrons,